Picturesque canyons put residents in line of fire

James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Photo: BOB CAREY

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A Ventura County Fire Department helicopter drops water on flames below the Highway 118 near the Santa Susana Pass in Simi Valley, Calif., Monday, Oct. 27, 2003. The hot wind driving wildfires across parts of Southern California eased Monday but officials warned that there was still a threat from the flames that had devoured entire neighborhoods and killed at least 13 people. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Bob Carey) less

A Ventura County Fire Department helicopter drops water on flames below the Highway 118 near the Santa Susana Pass in Simi Valley, Calif., Monday, Oct. 27, 2003. The hot wind driving wildfires across parts of ... more

Photo: BOB CAREY

Picturesque canyons put residents in line of fire

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2003-10-28 04:00:00 PDT Chatsworth, Los Angeles County -- Bill Clause, a construction tractor operator, enjoys spacious mountain views from his small, trim house here that draw many people to this deceptively crowded region.

There are nearly 10 million people in Los Angeles County, but from his home in a rustic area of the county's northeast corner, Clause can see handsome, craggy hills speckled with million-dollar homes and even a smattering of horse farms. A majestic California oak spreads beautifully by his front door.

It was a view that Clause took in Monday afternoon from his roof as he watered down his house and the surrounding shrubs with a garden hose and looked nervously at the fists of thick, dark smoke punching at a ridge that was all that stood between him and catastrophe.

"I ain't leaving no matter what," said Clause about 1:30 p.m., shortly after police had issued a mandatory evacuation order up and down Valley Circle Boulevard, one of the most vulnerable stretches of homes in Los Angeles. "They'll have to arrest me. I'm not going to walk away and let it burn. We came out here for this and I'm going to protect it."

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His stubborn proclamation placed in a nutshell one of the key reasons that the wildfires that tear through these hills and canyons decade after decade continue to cause so much havoc and loss. Many of the most desirable areas to live in are those that invite disaster because they rest directly in the paths that wildfires have taken through the region for centuries.

The great views come with an ominous history of natural disasters, but people cling tenaciously to their way of life.

Just down the road, Lester Davis walked a horse to a holding pen from a stable up a canyon nearby. He said he was staying, too, but that if he really had to go, then he planned to ride out of the area on horseback, even if that meant going slower.

Cynthia Collin, 36, who works in the office of a plastic surgeon, was out of breath as she raced to throw some papers, valuables and her cats into her car a few minutes after a police officer on a motorcycle issued the evacuation order with a bullhorn in front of her small apartment complex.

"I saw the smoke this morning, but I thought we were OK," she said. "I guess we're not."

The nearby Simi Valley fire has consumed about 90,000 acres in Ventura County to the north but, so far, has remained in sparsely populated areas covered with chaparral. Only six houses had been destroyed by early Monday evening.

Another series of fires has ignited vast sections of San Bernardino County, which contains many suburbs next to the picturesque San Gabriel Mountains 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

But Monday was the first day that the fires threatened to sweep directly into Los Angeles County, as the Simi Valley fire roared through several canyons and drew perilously close to Chatsworth and the surrounding communities of Canoga Park and Twin Lakes.

Fire officials said that, just in this far corner of the San Fernando Valley, there were more than 600 homes at risk, many of them expensive spreads in areas such as Bell Canyon, Woolsey Canyon and Box Canyon. But the real fear was that if the fires got pushed through the area along Valley Circle Boulevard, then little would stand between the blazes and Malibu, which suffered from catastrophic fires in 1993.

As of late Monday, the firefighters had managed to hold the line at Highway 118, in the Santa Susana Mountains, but they admitted that strong winds could overwhelm their defenses and leave large stretches of Los Angeles in flames.

"This is what we're concerned about," explained Greg Kershisnik, a firefighter with Engine Company 75 on Valley Circle Boulevard, as he pointed to a large map of the area. "If the canyons heading south and west toward us start to pull the fire in from the north, it'll take out most of this area."

He then drew his finger down the map to the west, and showed how such a fire could be sucked through Malibu Canyon and Topanga Canyon, repeating the pattern of the terrible 1993 fire.

"It's a beautiful place to live, but you have to wonder," he said.

Tammy Barker is a legal secretary who lives less than a mile from Box Canyon on three-quarters of an acre with her husband and daughter, as well as three horses and four dogs. She stood in front of her house shortly after the evacuation order had been given, and looked to the east at the dense billows of orange-tinged smoke.

She wanted to leave. Her husband wanted to stay.

"This is what I'm worried about," she said, motioning toward 3,000 acres of brush across the street, surrounding an old reservoir. "I love this. I don't know where else you could find it. But it's hard to ignore that," as she pointed at the smoke.

"I packed the car," she said.

In fact, by 2 p.m., there was a steady parade of cars heading west, toward Highway 101, nearly every one with a dog sticking its head out the window. People were moving hurriedly. The temperature hovered near 100 degrees and the air, heavy with ash, scorched throats.

Gail Koulas, 38, a dental lab technician, waited nervously by the side of the road for her husband, who was trying to get a broken down car started at their mobile home near Woolsey Canyon.

"We didn't think it would come to this," she said. And then she looked at a line of cars heading back up into the canyon.

"They're stupid to be going back up there when you see that smoke," she said. "But people here just don't want to believe it can happen to them."

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